Scott No: 2806-9
Serial number: 1997-19
Values in set: 4
Date of issue: October 24,1997
Designers: Guo Xianlu
Size: 50*30mm
Perforation: 12
Sheet composition: 40
Printing process: offset

Xi'an, called Changan in ancient times, is one of the six ancient capitals in China. Twelve dynasties such as Western Zhou, Western Han, Xinmang, Western Jin, Sui and Tang chose this city as their capital, spanning more than 1,000 years.

The existing city wall of Xi'an is 11,906.8 meters in length, 12 meters in height, 12-14 meters in width at the top and 15-18 meter in width at its base. The city wall was built by ramming loess layer by layer, the base layer constituted the blended substance of lime, earth and glutinous rice, and outside the wall lies a city moat. The structure and layout of this entire city wall were designed to ward-off the possible attacks and for defense, and are the existent materials for the study of the city building technology and city defensive wars during the medieval period.

As one of China's famous building constructions at the late stage of the medieval period, the city wall of Xi'an was included in the list of China's first batch of cultural relics units under State protection after liberation, and is well preserved ever since. In 1988, the Chinese Government appropriated a huge sum of money to repair and renovate the original city wall, restoring the ancient city wall of Xi'an to its original grandeur and opening it as a ring-city park.